This invention relates to a method and apparatus for washing animal carcasses.
It is customary in the operation of packinghouses to wash the carcasses after certain preliminary steps such as hide removal have been performed. The purpose of the washing step is to remove blood, hair, bone dust and other contaminants that remain on the carcass after final trimming. One suitable carcass washer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,674,211 issued July 4, 1972.
Hair is the most difficult contaminant to remove from the carcass, and it has been found that hair removal requires the use of high pressure water to provide the necessary high impact pressure. Commonly, warm water in a temperature range of about 90.degree.-105.degree. F. under moderately high pressures in the range of about 200 to 250 psig is sprayed on the carcass. Large quantities of water are used. The high impact pressures have been found to knock off about 1 and 1/4 pounds of fat per head during carcass washing, which represents a loss to the slaughterhouse operator.
It has been found that conventional carcass washing as described above is not totally satisfactory in that significant amounts of contaminants are left on the carcass. During subsequent processing where the carcasses are fabricated into smaller pieces, further trimming is required due to such contamination, adding to the labor expense and producing an estimated loss of 1/2 pound of beef per head.